While soaking up the final remnants of his preseason before training camp starts, Claude Giroux severely injured his hand while playing golf in Ottawa. The Philadelphia Flyers center and captain had a club shatter and splinter in his hands, causing damage to the tendons in his index finger.

Giroux underwent surgery in an area hospital to repair the injury. While addressing the media with regards to the injury, Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren stated that he is expected to miss five to six weeks. While that would cause Giroux to miss the entire preseason, it would keep him on pace to dress for the Flyers first regular season game against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Wells Fargo Center, barring any setbacks.

News of the Giroux injury brought back memories of an injury sustained by then-St. Louis Blue Erik Johnson. In 2008, while on a team golf outing, Johnson was driving a golf cart when his right foot was caught between the brake and the accelerator and ended up tearing two ligaments in his knee. Johnson ended up missing the entire season due to the injury.

In case Giroux felt like an idiot for such a freak accident, Johnson gave him some words of encouragement over Twitter.